This paper is organized as a manual with sections devoted to the two primary types of services investigated: emergency services and homelessness prevention case management services. The section on emergency services first discusses energy assistance, then the weatherization program followed by one-time rent and mortgage assistance. Each subsection presents information on the provision of these services from five urban Texas Counties: El Paso, Tarrant, Harris, Dallas, and Bexar, followed by; a sampling of the forms used by the counties, information on each counties management information system, and a discussion of efficiencies and innovation in service delivery found while researching this review. The section on homelessness prevention case management services begins with a description of the case management systems for the five out-of-state counties reviewed: Boulder, Hennepin, King, Multnomah, and Snohomish. The program descriptions are followed by information on each counties’ management information system and assessment tools, followed by a discussion of innovations and efficiencies implemented by the various programs.

This report examines the implementation of CareerAdvance®, particularly focusing on how and why the program changes and adjusts to meet the requirements of HPOG II, while responding to the needs of the participants being served, the local job market, and the partners working together to implement the program. This report draws from previous CareerAdvance® reports, information on the HPOG II program, participants and their families, and interviews with CAP, Tulsa Tech and Tulsa Community WorkAdvance staff. First, this report briefly describes the organizations partnering to implement HPOG II version of CareerAdvance®. It then examines changes made to the program components, including the eligibility requirements, recruitment, assessment, and selection process, support services, training options, and other program elements. Also, it describes the HPOG II FY 2017 (September 1, 2016 – August 31, 2017) cohorts enrolled in training, including assessment scores and detailed demographic information on participants and their families, as well as program completion and certification attainment of all HPOG II participants (April 2016 – August 31, 2017).

In 1995, the Texas Legislature authorized the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to improve child support services statewide through the creation of an Integrated Child Support System (ICSS) wherein the OAG may provide IV-D child support enforcement services under contract with counties that elect to participate in the system. The OAG sought and was granted a waiver from the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) of the requirement for a written application for IV-D services in participating ICSS counties. The waiver was renewed several times, but with the last approval the OAG was required to have the program independently evaluated. The OAG contracted with the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources (RMC) to design and conduct an evaluation to measure the impacts of ICSS, the results of which are included in this final report.

The Ray Marshall Center conducted the ICSS waiver evaluation using a combination of random assignment and composite pre-post evaluation designs to measure the impacts of the waiver at the county level. The evaluation relied primarily on OAG administrative records data, Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records, public assistance administrative records data, U.S. Bureau of the Census data, and other sources. These were used for estimating net impacts and for identifying relevant factors that may influence or be associated with the observed impacts. A process study provided a sufficient understanding of the structure and functioning of ICSS as implemented in order to accurately estimate the impacts of the waiver.

This is a revised and updated version of the one prepared in 2013. This paper is intended to serve as a getting-started guide for state and local policymakers as they begin to develop and implement two-generation strategies in their areas. It begins with an overview of the most recent family of innovative two-generation programs and provides several examples of the model that illustrate different approaches to a two-generation strategy with strong workforce and/or education components.

This 2015 Update report extends the labor market outcomes and impact analyses of prior annual updates of the effects of Travis County-funded investments in seven education and training programs for participants who exited services during the 2010-2014 time frame. Impacts are analyzed by means of a quasi-experimental design that uses propensity score matching to select individuals who are comparable along multiple dimensions to those who receive services supported by Travis County. Data are extracted from the administrative records of the programs; The Workforce Information System of Texas (TWIST), the statewide, integrated workforce program database; Work in Texas (WIT), the automated labor exchange system that registers job seekers; and Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records. The report also contains a brief narrative of the services, supports, and funding for each provider. Outcomes and impacts vary across the spectrum of grantees, as would be expected given their varying services regimes and the challenging populations they serve.

This report examines changes in the CareerAdvance® program that directly relate to the experience and progress of participants in the first through tenth cohorts through July 2015—the end of the sixth program year. A key finding of the implementation study to date is that the Community Action Project of Tulsa County (CAP Tulsa) has approached the design of the CareerAdvance® program as a continuous improvement process. The program model, its pathways, and other components have all been refined over time to address participant concerns, barriers to progress, and other factors. Because of these changes, few cohorts have experienced exactly the same program. This report examines program modifications over time, documents participation and progress in CareerAdvance®, and explores factors that appear to impede or support participant progress.

This report describes the Gulf Coast IT program participants from the first year of program implementation, which is considered to be the 2013-2014 academic year. In addition, the report provides an update on the Ray Marshall Center’s impact evaluation activities and provides an overview of data quality, gaps in data, and implications for the impact evaluation.

The U.S. labor market has changed significantly in many respects since the creation of the unemployment insurance (UI) program in 1935. The provision of cash benefits associated with UI has changed as well, yet the basic structure of the UI program remains the same. Due to the possibility that features of the UI program may need to keep pace with the changing nature of work, policy makers are looking to alternative measures to encourage more rapid reemployment and ensure better earnings recovery. Two proposed measures are the provision of wage insurance and/or the provision of wage supplements as a complement to UI, designed to increase the speed of reemployment and improve the wages of reemployed individuals.

This report outlines design parameters, evaluation methods, data sources, tasks, timelines and next steps for conducting a wage insurance and a wage supplement demonstration and accompanying evaluations. The report proposes key research questions related to program design and results, along with supplemental research questions gathered from the literature, feasibility analysis of the demonstrations, and discussions with an expert advisory committee and USDOL policy and program staff. Design parameters and options are outlined for each demonstration. These include program eligibility, targeting, supplement amount, duration and timing, and administrative infrastructure, and are largely based on the existing literature. The report proposes an implementation study and randomized control trial to capture the labor market impacts of the wage insurance and wage supplement demonstrations using employer records, state UI records, and survey data. Recommendations are made that a benefit/cost analysis be conducted as well. A discussion of the feasibility of the demonstrations and evaluation is included, along with precautions to ensure validity. Recommended large sample sizes and randomized control trial design, will support statistically significant results.

The project evaluated in this report, the Austin Two-Generation Pilot Project, provided English as a Second Language classes three mornings a week in the spring semester 2015 for adults with children enrolled in two different Austin Independent School District sites: Uphaus Early Childhood Center and Linder Elementary school. The project was designed to gain an understanding of the implementation process and participant experience of a two-generation project in Austin, TX to inform future two-generation project development in the region.

This two-generation pilot project was evaluated using the following means: a review of student goal setting forms, an interview with the ESL teacher, student surveys and focus group transcripts, a classroom observation, student attendance related to a pre- and post-test of student English literacy skills, and a comparison of the spring semester school attendance of the Uphaus children whose parents participated in the project, to the larger group of Uphaus students.

Participants indicated that their primary reason for participating in the program was to help their children with homework and to learn to use a computer for work and finding a job. Parents identified that quality child care services for their younger children were essential to their participation in the program. Parents reported increasing the amount of time they spend reading to their children, listening and talking to their children each day after school, reading the school newsletter, talking with their child’s teacher, and attending parent events. The majority of participants experienced improvements in listening (77%), pronunciation (61%), speaking (61%), and writing (77%) as a result of their participation in the class.

This report examines the CareerAdvance® program in Tulsa (OK) as a case study on the sustainability of a two‐generation anti‐poverty strategy that seeks to increase family economic mobility by investing intensively in sector‐based, career pathway education and training for parents, while their children are simultaneously enrolled in quality early childhood education. It is the length and intensity of the CareerAdvance® program that creates the most serious challenges for sustainability.

The sustainability of the CareerAdvance® program is analyzed using the Microsoft Scaling Framework, which provides a lens to consider the program’s design, adaptability, use of technology, and context. This analysis indicates that some components of the CareerAdvance® program, e.g., wrap‐around services and peer supports, lend themselves to positive and sustainable outcomes for participants, and some components, e.g., a strong workforce intermediary and identifying more reliable funding streams, require further investment. Based on this analysis, the report offers a series of recommendations for policymakers and program staff implementing two‐generation programs, and considers the challenges associated with bringing them to scale.